


A Wolf Without a Pack

by OneSmartChicken



Series: the one where there's an Irish faerie and Stiles is a fox(literally) [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fox!Stiles, M/M, Mates, Mostly Fluff, Pack, pretty much fluff, some stilinski family feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-11
Updated: 2013-12-11
Packaged: 2018-01-04 08:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1078925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneSmartChicken/pseuds/OneSmartChicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The most misleading title in history.</p>
<p>Stiles sorts out some misunderstandings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Wolf Without a Pack

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I had a lot of grand(ish) plans for a couple different chapters to this, at least one of which actually come before this(which takes place not too long after the first story, but not too shortly either. So, probably more than a month but less than a year.)
> 
> I'm still intending to have a chapter dedicated entirely to Stilinski family feels, aka the sheriff and Stiles and probably Scott and Mama McCall because I ship Melissa/the Sheriff(his name's John just accept it) way too hard, and another chapter just for Sterek, but somehow I wound up with this little thing which is kind of just Biter and Stiles.
> 
> I apparently have to be in a weird mood to manage the correct writing style for this fic. Which is probably indistinguishable from all my other writing for you but it's vastly different in my head because I'm just like that.
> 
> So anyway. Here's not-what-I-intended-to-upload-next because I think it's time we all accept that planning is not my specialty.

Stiles stood in the middle of the forest, considering his options. He wasn't lost, so that was good. But he didn't know where to go nonetheless. Less good. There were too many options, and too few. His father tugged on one metaphorical arm while Derek clung uncertainly to the other. It was hard to justify sticking around in a pack who's alpha wasn't even sure he should stay. Except Stiles knew Derek's only hesitation was because of the sheriff. Because of his father. Because Derek didn't have any family left. Derek didn't understand though; Stiles hadn't had family either. Not for a long, long time. And the sheriff was his dad, would always be his dad, had always been his dad--but for Stiles, the Hales were the family he really remembered. Well, the Hales and a few foxes, and one stubborn owl. Technically, he remembered his human parents. Vaguely. But he had been away from them longer than he had been with them, and then there was Derek, and the pack, and... _they_ were his family. Them and Biter and his dad, they were all family. He loved them all, wanted them all to just...be together.

Biter cooed in a tree above him, and he opened his mouth for a fox's resounding bay, a sound that was much too big for a little fox and too shrill, too animal for a human throat, but Stiles made it anyway. Biter screamed back at him in reproach, bristling and hunching her wings at him for an irritated glare. Stiles grinned at her and trilled a crooning, adoring apology. Biter was the best in all of this. Biter who accepted all of Stiles' new family without question. Biter who saw things much like he did. Biter who understood that they were all pack, all family, and no one of them was more important than the other. They were just...different.

"Why can't anyone else grasp that? It seems so simple to me," he confessed as much as asked of Biter, holding out a hoodie-protected forearm for her. She glided down to claim the perch readily.

_Humans never see like the wild does. Not even those who are half wild themselves._ She made a noise to indicate Derek, all that he encompassed from her perspective. Friend-stealer. Wolf. Pack-leader. Mate-of-friend. Ally-maybe. And some hints of how he looked and smelled and sounded, some of his physical to go with the mental imagery. Stiles sighed in resignation.

"I did not imagine pack to be so hard," he told her, preening her neck feathers with his fingertips as he had learned she liked him to do in this form. "The herds I met, they always seemed so easy. Except in heat season, but that is that. These men and half-men, they act ever as if I am a bitch in heat, but a stupid one. They prance around me like fawns about to do battle over a berry bush, but the bush is not a bush at all, and need not be eaten by any of them. They call me family and treat me like a toy." He sighed, a heavy sound full of frustration and anger and some regret for a lack of appropriate metaphor in his vocabulary, human or wild alike.

_We can always leave,_ Biter pointed out, and he canted his head, considered the merit. _You have learned now of your two-leggedness, but that does not mean you cannot be four-legged._ She blinked at him with the calm wisdom unique to owls, or so he had found. Even little owlets were too wise for their own good.

"You are right, as ever," he hummed, and shook his arm lightly. She obligingly took wing and to the trees to wait for him as he wriggled free of human fur--clothes, he reminded himself sternly--and then shed his two-leggedness. The change was easier each time, the flow between man and fox becoming exactly that; a flow. The Grizzled Pup shook out his fur, then called out to his friend above. Biter returned the call gaily, and into the forest they fled, his legs pumping as her wings beat the air in frantic silence. They had no need of the hunt, and so they bayed and screamed into the night, filling the forest with their raucous sounds, laughter and shouts and one long, lonely keen.

_A wolf stuck between two packs is a wolf with no pack at all,_ Biter commented as they took in the rainbow sunrise from a hill for Stiles' benefit. In the dew-dampened grass, he lay panting, muscles strained and stamina spent. Biter perched high above his head and neither made a sound, merely watched the sun climb slowly higher and higher into the sky.

_They will fret_ , Biter cooed, and his ears went back.

_They will fall over themselves finding where I am, fight like starving coyotes over a scrap for whose fault it is that I am missing, for who it is that should find me. How have I found such a stupid pack?_ he snarled, snapped at the air as if it personally offended him. And it did--it very much did.

Biter made a smug sound. _Because what smart pack would take a scrap of fur like you as a member?_ she remarked. Stiles snorted, then blinked. Snorted again, this time with a canine grin. Because of course they were pack. They were just a very, very dumb pack.

Bouncing to his paws, he stretched, limbering up his sore muscles. _Let us reassure them before they start a fox-hunt,_ he jested, and Biter's laughter marked the start of their trek back through the woods. Stiles paused at the scent mark of the Hale territory line, which they had not been so far beyond, not really, and added his scent to it with a smug sort of feeling. Biter mocked him and he snapped his teeth in mock-irritation and they continued on their way. Still miles from the Hale house, Derek barreled out of the trees and Stiles yelped as he was yanked off the ground and into a hug so tight he writhed in protest for fear of broken bones.

"Where the fuck have you been!?" Derek snarled, reluctantly loosening his hold on Stiles, who in turn twisted about to brace forepaws on Derek's shoulders and gave him a _look._ Derek did not look effected, leading Stiles to believe that, for humans and -halves at least, that look required eyebrows. So he acquired eyebrows, sliding easily into two legs to quirk a brow at Derek.

"Biter and I went for a run. Fly. Why do humans not have a word for both? Why is it separate? It is silly. We went for--a trip? Adventure? Without a goal, only a need for...exercise. Yes. That. I think. Why are you so angry? I had no obligations last night." Stiles scowled at him, impatient already with this mothering his mate kept at, even if it was somewhat endearing. Derek gritted his teeth, then, faster than Stiles could dodge, since it was completely unexpected, he lunged forward and nipped Stiles right on the nose. Stiles gaped at him for the audacity. And yet, remembering when he had nipped Derek's nose, Stiles almost wanted to grin.

"What would you have done, if I had disappeared for an entire night without a word?" Derek asked, clearly trying to sound reasonable and patient. He didn't seem either, but Stiles appreciated the effort. He frowned at the wolf.

"The pack and I would have hunted you down. You are the alpha. You are obligated to not disappear," Stiles supplied. Derek rolled his eyes.

"And what if one of the Betas had gone missing for a night?" he prodded.

"Obviously I would have been alongside you searching for them. A Beta should not be beyond his alpha's reach." Ah, look, they were having the conversation Stiles wanted after all. Although Derek appeared to believe he had the upper hand. It didn't matter to Stiles; in this, he would win, in the end. He relaxed, settling his arms loosely around Derek's neck.

Derek huffed his frustration. "And the sheriff? What if he--?"

Stiles cut him off, supplying, "The whole town would hunt down the sheriff. Obligations, Derek. I have none, for I am without a pack. Caught between two families, I am left with none." Stiles smiled at him, neither happy nor sad. Derek looked distressed though, so he pet his wolf's cheek. "My father does not know how to be pack, and my pack does not know that they need only ask. My mate refuses to accept me, thinking it for my own good, and my friends follow their alpha's lead. A fox is a solitary animal, you know. But this fox is not your average fox. Will you give me a pack, Derek?"

And finally, _finally_ his mate kissed him, and that kiss was a promise that Stiles knew Derek fully intended to keep.

**Author's Note:**

> Tiny little chapter thing I know I'm sorry there'll be more though I promise. Okay more like hope but I'm definitely going to try and add a few more chapters to this verse. Hopefully this wraps things up to some extent though? It feels a little more satisfying to me.
> 
> One of the other chapters will deal with Stiles learning to switch between fox and human, and also a little more about Biter because animals give me feelings and I want your Biter feelings to be happy. And I guess if there's anything else you want me to write in this verse, request it in the comments. I live to fucking pander to you people and that's not even sarcasm.


End file.
